A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said, "You conclude the proceedings and appoint the members and staff before December 22".

The Court's direction came after Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain informed it that a notification regarding the vacancy was issued in June this year and "in a week or ten days appointments will be finalised".

The court said it will take up the issue on December 22 before which the Centre must fill up the vacancies.

On December 3, the bench had sought a reply from the Ministry of Labour and the Central Provident Fund Commissioner to the allegation that there was non-compliance of its 2008 order directing the Tribunal to fill up vacant positions.

The Tribunal was set up in July 1997 to administer a compulsory contributory provident fund scheme, pension scheme and insurance scheme.

The PIL, filed by advocate Rajiv Shukla, President of EPFAT Bar Association, had alleged that the Tribunal has been deficient in terms of infrastructure and staff since the time it was set up and it needed immediate attention to make it work effectively.

The facilities have been miserable at the Tribunal and in 2007 a few shortlisted judicial officers had even refused to accept their appointment, it had claimed.

"When the Tribunal was shifted to Connaught Place from Nehru Place in 2007, there was a fire in its building after which it was declared unsafe by municipal authorities. Because of this, functioning of the Tribunal came to a halt for almost 10 months," the plea had said.

The advocate had further said that on a PIL filed in 2008, the High Court had directed that requirement of staff be considered and a decision taken on priority basis but this order was not complied with.